Review: Outrage
Kitano Takeshi is back, movie lovers, and you better cover up that little pinky because he’s liable to chop it the f*ck right off. That’s right, he’s dusted down the black Mercedes and the...
Category: Asia
Democratic Reform in Burma?
Burma, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, is in a whole jar of pickles right about now. The brand new civilian government is trying to set up a semblance of democratic reform, but human...
Review: Jane Gallop – The Deaths of the Author
Jane Gallop, The Deaths of the Author: Reading and Writing in Time, Duke UP, 2011. “The death of the author” has long been a theme in literary theory. First posed by the French intellectual...
Review: The Red Market by Scott Carney
It sounds like the stuff of nightmarish urban legends: in rural India, men desperate for money or a meal are promised both, then held captive in “blood farms” where their blood is siphoned...
Review: Sawako Decides
Small town girl Sawako is constipated both literally and metaphorically. Her dream life in Tokyo has ground to a halt. Her get up and go has got up and gone. She’s on her 5th job and her 5th...
Review: Junior Boys – It’s All True
Junior Boys, It’s All True (Domino Records 2011) In a field where careers can last as long as a remix and whole genres are ephemeral, Canadian electropop group Junior Boys have had a surprisingly...
Why I Sing My Blues: Women and Hindi Soaps
Deciphering the universe of Hindi soaps demands an astute eye for the texture of relationships within joint families. A few clarifications, hence, for folk unfamiliar with the nuances of an Indian...
Review: Su Tong – Madwoman on the Bridge
Su Tong, Madwoman on the Bridge, Transworld Publishers, 2008. Su Tong is a Chinese author who has gained international recognition for his work, recently being nominated for the Man Booker...
Is Green light worth the price? CFLs, China and carbon emissions
Thomas Edison said two prescient things about the manufacturing of lightbulbs: "we now know a thousand ways not to build a light bulb” and "We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will...
Floods in Australia… but what about the others?
Floods are rampant worldwide just at the present. There has been one disaster after another between the flooding in the northern Australian state of Queensland, South Africa, Brazil and the...